‘Cars 3’ Reveals First Look at Armie Hammer’s New Villain

Describing a car as “villainous” is kind of silly, but this is the world of Pixar, where it’s totally normal for inanimate objects to become anthropomorphic friends and foes. The latest batch of photos from Cars 3 reveal a bit of both, including our first look at new baddie Jackson Storm, voiced by Armie Hammer. Pixar has also revealed some additional plot details from their next big sequel, which hits theaters this summer.

Entertainment Weekly debuted the photos, which introduce a few of the new characters we’ll meet in Cars 3 and give us another peek at an upgraded Lightning McQueen (voiced by returning star Owen Wilson):

The top left and bottom right photos feature the aforementioned Jackson Storm, a young, modern race car who is “light-years ahead of Lightning.” Armie Hammer is an appropriate pick for the new antagonist, a cocky and advanced racing model who thinks ol’ Lightning had his chance to shine. Brian Fee, who worked on storyboards for the first two films, makes his directorial debut on the sequel, and had this to say about Hammer’s character:

He thinks the future of racing and the high-tech ways they train and what they can do means they’re taking the sport to a new level, and the older guys had their day, and it’s done, and they have no place in the future of racing.

As for Lightning himself, Fee says:

McQueen is not the young hotshot anymore, the kid he was back then in Cars 1. He’s in the middle of his life, and as an athlete, that’s getting up there. You have your whole life ahead of you, yet your career is starting to show its age. He’s looking in the mirror and realizing, “I’m 40 years old,” and dealing with the fact that the thing that you love more than anything else, you might not be able to do forever.

That seems like a real downer story, and that’s definitely the vibe we got from the first teaser trailer, which had a weirdly dark tone. But it’s not all doom and gloom — Lightning will have some help from another new character, Cruz Ramirez (Cristela Alonzo), a young up-and-comer who has long idolized Lightning and serves as his new coach, presumably getting him back on track, so to speak.